KEY POINTS:
V8s, don't you just love'em! The joy of the V8s is that what you see on the telly is not that far removed from what's parked in the driveway.
Whereas Formula 1 is so far removed from the wheels of us mere mortals, it may as well be
a Scalextric game played by the Gods. F1 cars look like paper darts, and they're not driven, they're programmed.
The Hamilton 400 fires up today and over the weekend 162,000 petrolheads, and a fair few of the just plain curious, are going to experience the magic of V8 Supercar racing. These bellowing behemoths are going to be manhandled at speeds up to 250km/h around streets usually used for getting to work or going shopping.
We can relate to not only the cars but also the roads they'll race on.
With a change of venue a change of luck may be on the cards. For the past seven years, Holden's kept the Fords bolted firmly in the back seat when it comes to winning the Kiwi round of the championships.
Principle protagonist among the victorious Holden pilots has been our own Greg Murphy, who has four hometown winning trophies on his mantelpiece.
Over the past couple of seasons Murphy's been a bit off his game but with a new car, coupled with new-found enthusiasm, Murphy's tail feathers are well and truly up.
"It's been hell, it really has," said Murphy. "Jason [Richards] and I've been working our absolute butts off. We've been playing with a wooden racket while the rest of the field have been playing with the latest carbon fibre composite.
"The new car has not so much evolved from the old car. It's a complete revolution and I can't wait to start working with [it] and feel like I'm driving a really good car again."
All drivers want to win races but the Ford pilots will be increasingly desperate, as will their respective teams, to break the blue oval drought in New Zealand. After two rounds Jamie Whincup's Ford sits at the top of table, with the Holdens of Rick Kelly and Lee Holdsworth breathing down his neck.
Whincup does have some moral support with the likes of Ford drivers Mark Winterbottom, Will Davison and Craig Lowndes hovering just outside the top three.
All they've got to do is stay out of trouble and not take each other out as Lowndes and James Courtney did in Adelaide.
Chief among the Ford challengers are Whincup and Lowndes. Two-time world karting champion Whincup is a big threat as he's keen to improve on his second in the title chase last year.
"It's anyone's game on the day because you never know what's going to happen during racing," he said.
Three-time champion Lowndes is a bit more circumspect in his outlook and has a more clinical approach to the third round of the series.
"Street circuits tend to suit our cars and mentality," he said.
Another fast mover is James Courtney, who's shown some scintillating pace in the past. If he stays out of trouble, and on track, he'll be in with a great chance to break the duck for Ford this weekend.
Now that Garth Tander's crew has fixed his car's front, and his total dominance at the non-points scoring round at Australian Grand Prix Melbourne in winning all three races, the defending champion's form is an ominous sign for the Ford fans.
It'll be a bit of a homecoming for local driver Kayne Scott, as not only is he racing in the black Team Kiwi Racing car, he's also having a lunge in the NZV8s. Scott, who lives in Hamilton, where TKR are now based, said: "Our goals are quite realistic. We've just got to go about re-establishing the team on the track."
They say fortune favours the brave and it'll be a brave driver who'll attack the fast, open track from the onset. The new 3.4km Hamilton street circuit is an unknown quantity to all the drivers and in general has been greeted with enthusiasm and praise.
"Build it and they will come" could have been event organiser Steve Vuleta's mantra over the past two years. And come the crowds have, eclipsing Pukekohe's swansong crowd of 132,000. "I wanted to build a circuit that the drivers would like and find a challenge but also something exciting for the crowd," said Vuleta.
Most drivers will revel in the extra width and wide exits on some corners that will allow them to get on the gas earlier and carry more speed on to the straights, reaching nearly 250km/h before slamming the anchors on and pitching the car hard into turn one.
"The width of the front straight is huge," said Murphy, who's the leading Kiwi driver in seventh. "There's plenty of room and anywhere there's really fast bits going into slow corners will have good passing opportunities."
At 12.50 today all the talk stops and there'll be no time for excuses.
SCHEDULE
TODAY
12.50pm: V8 Supercars, practice one
1.25pm: V8 Supercars, practice two
1.55pm: V8 Supercars, practice three
2.35pm: V8 Supercars, practice four
3.55pm: NZV8s, qualifying
TOMORROW
9.30am: Porsche GT3, race one
10:05am: NZ V8s, race one
11.20am: V8 Supercars, qualifying leg one
11.45am: V8 Supercars, qualifying leg two
12.05pm: V8 Supercars, qualifying leg three
1.15pm: Toyota Racing Series, race one
1.55pm: NZV8s, race two
2.40pm: Porsche GT3, race two
3.15pm: Mini Challenge, race one
4.15pm: V8 Supercars, race one
SUNDAY
9.15am: Toyota Racing Series, race two
10.35am: Mini Challenge, race two
10.55am: Airforce Helicopter vs Porsche GT3, one lap race-off
11.30am: V8 Supercars, race two
12.50pm: NZ V8s, race three
1.55pm: V8 Supercars, drivers parade
2.15pm: Porsche GT3, race three
3.25pm: V8 Supercars, race three
